THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! STAY TUNED....

In the industry, games are pitched every day. Some make it to the next stage, but many don't, like those named above. We regret to announce that we're adding Shaker: An Old-School RPG to the latter list.

We are profoundly grateful to our fans. You were as excited about this game as we were, and from the very beginning, you encouraged us to post more details about it and even sent in fan art! We have received backing from over 7,000 of you and raised a quarter million dollars in just a few days (!). That's humbling and wonderful.

We are profoundly grateful to the press. You covered our Kickstarter's launch and story update and gave it as much attention as you possibly could. It was through your efforts that many heard about our game.

We are grateful to our friends in the game industry who gave us suggestions, support and critique. We are a wonderfully tight-knit community, and we owe you for all your feedback and friendship.

Ultimately, our pitch just wasn't strong enough to get the traction we felt it needed to thrive. Sure, it may have made it. We could have fought our way to a possibly successful end. In reading your feedback and talking it over internally, however, we decided that it made more sense to kill it and come back with something stronger.

Too bad. Probably you got more hints than you begged for. So here are my 2 Cents.
Try to get an IP you previously worked on, let's say Wizardry. Even if it costs you a few thousand bucks, it's gonna be worth. Use middleware, like UDK, CryEngine... whatever to save money. Don't listen to your coders here ;-).
I don't think you can raise more than 500k-750k for an old-school-rpg. In the end, let's face it, it's a niche.
But good luck for you.... I really look forward to play a wizardy-style game one day again.

Really sad to see this one cancelled. I have my fingers crossed for you folks getting things together better and coming at this project stronger - I LOVE the concept and would still love to see Shaker become a reality!

Also, we do want an old-school game, but your pitch felt like a marketing attempt to 'capitalize on a potential under-served old-school market of older players with untapped disposable income'. You came across as more publisher-like than 'old-school' gaming fans. Next time, SHOW old-school, more than you say it. (which was at least 17 times in your video) Some of us smarter backers even deciphered it was old-school from the original working title, Old-School RPG.
Modern RPGs have been streamlined to be more accessible to a broad audience. Effect. Simplified stats with greatly reduced impact on the game. There is no wrong character design. Kinda takes the thought out of it. Level scaling, so nothing is ever too hard or too easy. This destroys the sense of progress. Easier games. Now, you generally only die when you do something stupid, get unlucky, or artificially crank up the difficulty. So you lose the sense of accomplishment from overcoming a real challenge. (these are just a few examples)
I am only being critical because I care.

It was obvious you were woefully unprepared and scrambling to create the concept after the Kickstarter began, which killed enthusiasm for the project. The complete halt in momentum shows that people picked up on that. Your concept did turn out to be interesting, and I do like the two-world/Game idea. I hope you do create another Kickstarter, but I must warn you. Since it will be your second attempt, you need to be even more prepared than other KS projects, to show how far you've progressed from this debacle. Unabashedly admitting it might help as well. Live and Learn. I eagerly look forward to your second attempt.

Look, if you had to kill it, then so be it. You are right it did stall and you are also right that there was no clear concept of what the game was supposed to be. What I understood was that you guys wanted money to get your ideas going and if you hit a sweet spot, you figured you had enough to make 2 games and somehow you would connect the game worlds. Cool stuff, I was paying for a jam session and I was cool with that, but to most something more concrete needs to be in place.
Also, I’m not sure if you can get the rights, but how about a spiritual successor to Anachronox? I mean that cliffhanger ending left me wanting more and I think you would have reached your goal by now if that was your first kickstarter project.

I found your various levels frustrating. I backed at the $60 level because I wanted the Pen and Paper Edition. Then you offered a cloth map which I also wanted BUT I could not figure out how to get both it and the Pen and Paper Edition. The $100+ levels said "All the previous rewards" but the graphic representations of those levels don't show it. Is it there or not? I could not figure it out so I did not raise my pledge.

This is a tough but really wise decision. Thank you so much for having the courage to make it, as I fully believe in what you have to offer and that shouldn't have to suffer from a pitch. Crowd sourcing games is pretty new so we should expect some mistakes here and there while it's figured out. I cannot wait to see your next pitch and you'll see my backing funds there as well.

sorry to hear this. I'm not 100% sure what this game was supposed to be but I saw some potential in this. apart from Project Eternity (and maybe this) there are no RPGs that I'm interested in in the last 5-10+ years

I didn't get the activation message from the forum (which now tells me to contact a board administrator, but doesn't tell me how). The Facebook page isn't a page, it's a "person" that needs to be befriended. It's like they're trying to put all the possible obstacles in the way.

I think that what's missing from this post is what was missing from this project as a whole: a plan and sharing it with the backers. All that's said is "come back with something stronger" and "Expect something more soon."

"Something stronger" isn't well defined and we already know that "soon" might mean "never". Saying something like "we will be working on fleshing out the world and creating a mockup; expect more in a month or two" would have been 10000% better.

I'll support your next game because of who you are but i will wait to throw more money at you depending on concept/ design. Maybe you could set up a new website or change your old one to include a forum. Then have the seven thousand plus people who were willing to support you on shaker, help you with the next game(Basic Design/ KS reward tiers/ other marketing ideas. It sucks not to have your ideas come to fruition but i have confidence in your team.

Out of all the games I've backed, this is one of my top 3 favorites. I loved Wizardry 8 and was very much looking forward to a new modern take on a design like that. I will be watching for your next effort.

Ok, first of all, too bad to see this not go through. Ever since Baldur's Gate I have been waiting for a 3D version of that game concept and this ssemed to be the closest thing to date.
Next, I agree with most of the remarks on setting up better tiers; also keep in mind that some us are not in the US and would prefer an all-digital version of the variouis tiers. With tregard to stretch goals, don't go there unless your original gets into sight.
Finally, yes, please come back with a new / improved / better project, but keep in the vein of what so many of us are lookingh for:
Good l;uck!

Sad, but hope next project will go better. Just try to make a better presentation, because this one was all abot "old school" and rewards, but nothing about the project, felt like a "money grab" at the begining. Wish you all the best and looking forwad your next project! Good luck.

A absolute No-Go was your stretch goal at 1.9 million: "Two RPGs for one kickstarter". What is that supposed to mean? When I fund a game I want you to put it all in THIS game and this game only. It would have been better not to mention stretch goals from the beginning at all. You might now think Obsidians success was only about being the first, but it was not. I had the impression that you were thinking "Ok, this kickstarter thing really goes skyrocketing. Let's do some old school RPG game and let them throw money at us!" In the beginning there even was no name, just a placeholder. The concept was not ripe and ready, and it was clear to see. You wrote "Old School RPG" 48times on the site, you know :) Anyway, I wish you good luck for the next try. Do it solid then, and I will be in.

Since you seem to be interested in feedback for a possible future run at this, I will say that I thought your reward tiers were set up poorly, and I would have supported at a higher level had they been better arranged. In particular, your pitch puts real emphasis on the old school experience being about a small list of specific components: A nice box, a cloth map, and some trinket that ties you in to the game. (Presumably also a CD and a printed manual.) However, to get those elements, you needed to donate $125, which is a huge amount of money. For that $125, you received all kinds of irrelevant stuff: the soundtrack, a t-shirt, all kinds of digital assets, etc. If you could have pulled off a $60 tier ($60 being the magic number in terms of being approximately what an A-list game costs if you go out and buy it in the store) that included JUST AND ONLY: A box, the game on a DVD, the printed manual, a cloth map, and a metal trinked; I think you would have sold a lot of pledges at that level, and I would 100% have upped my pledge from the $15 digital download to that tier. Things like t-shirts and soundtracks are things that buyers think of as part of the collector's edition for the die hard. THOSE should come in at the higher levels, not the things you just made a video telling us were an essential part of the experience.

I think you could have gotten more traction emphasizing that it was to be a First Person, turn-based RPG, rather than simply emphasizing oldschool.

Calling it an old school RPG kept making me think of third-person isometric RPGs. I'm sure many people have other impressions of what an "oldschool" RPG is. Providing a clearer picture of what it will be like to play your game would focus that. Possibly with mockup screenshots (eg. Project Eternity showed one immediately), or a "concept" video to show what you expect the game to be like in motion. (Though a completely different genre, this worked well for Planetary Annihilation)

The story and setting feel pretty solid (though I'm a bigger fan of the sci-fi side), so I hope you don't throw out your core story concepts for the next go.

I sort of expected this to happen. I just haven't seen much enthusiasm from most of my fellow RPG fans. Maybe it was just *too* old-school for them?

Regardless, I just want to take this chance to say that I LOVED the concept of using time travel to investigate and prevent the predicted destruction of the universe. It has a lot of potential, so I hope it will reappear in one form or another. I've made sure to friend Loot Drop on Facebook, so I can keep myself informed on your next attempt. :)

Come again, come prepared, and don't forget to bring the gum when you do your posterior-kicking next time around!

Damn, this didn't just get me excited about Shaker, it rekindled a passion for a lot of old-school stuff. For some reason, it reminded me most of Hired Guns, and I was definitely looking forward to playing it.
Ah well, keep at it. Maybe if you pitched Anachronox 2...

If I hadn't spent so much on a certain other Kickstarter game so recently I would've made a higher pledge here. Unfortunately I have only so much disposable income to spread around.

This points out one of the main reasons, I think, this promising idea never got the traction it should have. You put it up right in the middle of the run of another major project that hovered up a large chunk of the available funding at this time.

That, and the vagueness of your initial pitch. It took a while to become clear what , exactly, it was that you were trying to achieve with.

Anyway, I hope you guys regroup, and when you come back with another project, or the same one revamped, I'll be here to support you again. :)

Surprised to see such a group of heavyweights throw in the towel like this, half way through. Those 7000 people, including me, were investing in you more than your pitch. Kickstarters that succeed do it by creating a lot of energy, and releasing tons of media to keep the momentum up. If you do try again, I think you need to focus harder on marketing yourselves and creating a buzz around the project. But don't spend forever searching for the perfect concept, because there ain't no such thing.

I was hoping that you guys would reach your goal. I was definitely interested in what you'd revealed of the game and and high hopes given what you all have done in the past. If you do reboot, I'll definitely be backing the next time.

Superbacker

I'm sorry to hear that, but, to be honest, I think you blew your chances since the beginning.
Too many things were not clear since the beginnings. Also It would have helped to have some target renderer of what you wanted to achieve, to provide some look and feel.
You managed to give a few insights of the settings, but it was too little and too late.
If you intend to try again, please also consider to have some important website about gaming have a news about your kickstarter. Spread the news yourselves on Forums.
I'm sorry to say this, but tjhe whole kickstarter looked and sounded like a "me too" more than some serious professionals launching a new project..
You, your professional experiences and your jobs deserve and are better than all of what I said.
Don't give up and prepare a better presentation for your project.

If you're going to just give up like this I don't hold much hope for future projects. Any chance you had of getting a surge of funds to meet the $1,000,000 mark, is now gone thanks to this 'We Give Up' post.

@Sami, but they do have specific games (like Wizardry, especially Wizardry) in a specific RPG genre (old school first person perspective RPGs), that have a strong nostalgic following. They didn't leverage this very well. For some projects I can imagine what you said may apply, games that people might find hard to imagine, or are obscure enough to preclude a strong base of support. I just don't think this project suffers from that, it suffered from other things, but not that.

Is it possible that this is the extent of potential for a project that has very little base to build from? The successful kickstarters have leant heavily on past projects and being at least spiritual successors to games that have been loved by many people. I don't see that kind of angle in the Shaker marketing efforts, and that made it more difficult for me to understand what I'm pledging about. For example in Obsidian's kickstarter they could drop names left and right about the games that they're most interested in succeeding, so I feel that I have a much clearer picture about the product that I'm pledging to. While it's understandable that one game can't resemble all of them at once, it's easier to give out money imagining it can and will happen.

Superbacker

I think you've made the right call guys. I do hope to see you back though. One small feedback suggestion for next time: Don't announce stretch goals until you've hit the base target - until that happens, stretch goals are actually working against your momentum.

OK guys, just a quick note to let you know that I for one, was very very interested in the game and setting, especially with the idea of the two different perspectives on the same universe (2m stretch goal). I think there probably are lessons to be learned (I won't try to guess what they are), but I loved the idea, setting, and all. Probably needs more polish, but don't KILL this one, please. Thank you for your work and passion, and please add me somehow or send a poll, so we can still be in touch. I don't want to miss Shaker 2.0 when it comes back.

@ET3D, I actually look at it from a different perspective. As of now this project is in the past, and the "failure" attached to it is now past tense, and it wasn't allowed to get any worse than it is right now. 2 additional weeks of a "failing SHAKER" would have simply cemented SHAKER + failure a little bit more every day. More opportunity for the negativity to sink in. Do you get what I mean?

As I said several times over at the comments page, I think it would make more sense to continue the project, not for it to succeed, just so that it gets some more fans and shows that you can communicate with them. But that's only the case if you think you can show more details over that time. If the project is at such a stage that you don't expect to be able to provide enough info within the next two weeks, then closing it and restarting when there's more to show might be a good thing.

I've seen several projects get cancelled, but I never saw one which did so well. You might be far from your goal, but a quarter of a million shows that you have quite a few fans and a decent enough concept (I pledged for the concept, not because I'm a fan). I hope that you can satisfy these fans with a new project further down the road.